Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Official Paladin Q&A

Ghostcrawler is getting a fair bit of flack for this statement. However, I think he just used the wrong word. JoJ isn't a gap-closer, but is more of snare. However, using the word "snare", would be impolitic. In a little bit of sophistry, JoJ isn't technically a snare, which means that anti-snare mechanics like druid shapeshifting don't work. JoJ is designed to be the "glue" that allows a paladin to stick to her target once she is in range.

Personally, I don't PvP, so I'm not too sure how good JoJ is. I think it would be neat if it had an additional constraining effect. Something like "prevents teleportation" so the target can't Blink or Demonic Teleport away from the paladin. Another amusing idea I had was that JoJ could prevent the target from changing form. So if a priest was in Shadowform, JoJ would prevent him from dropping out of Shadowform.

Q&A in General

In general, nothing new or interesting came up in the Q&A, other than Ret would get an interrupt effect. I got the sense that Blizzard feels that the paladin class is finished and complete, with only minor tweaking to be done as needed. So if you're not happy with your paladin spec playstyle, it's probably time to switch classes.

10 comments:

Well, to be fair, it is a "gap closer" in the sense that since it limits movement speed to 100%, and Ret (at least, PvP Ret) is assumed to have Pursuit of Justice, then the Paladin can close in on their target.

There is a glyph that extends the range of HoJ by 5 yards and if you are ret you also have repentance. HoJ a mage and he blinks just repentance him and beat the snot out of him.

HoJ is extremely powerfull in pvp as it allows you to get off your entire rotation while the target can't do a damn thing. Also with Hand of Freedom, cleanse, and pursuit of Justice it is more difficult to kite a paladin then say a rogue or warrior.

All in all, paladins do not seem to be doing 'poorly' in the world pvp standings. We should be cautious of encouraging Blizzard to spend tremendous amounts of coding time trying to improve things marginally for paladins versus providing new content or more importantly, those promised new dance moves! Now *that's* a problem with the paladin class - where are our spec-specific dance moves?! Throw down your 'in-your-face-ret' dance versus a more conservative 'holy' dance - or would that be a euphoric one?

@ Marto - Retribution lacks finesse. You run up to your target and hit your abilities as they come of CD. You don't have a DoT to maintain. You don't have a buff to maintain. Hell, you don't even have Rage or Energy to maintain.

Trying to DPS on my Feral Druid is a whole different world. I have to keep track of DoTs, debuffs, buffs, combo points, AND positioning.

Mind you - I'm of the opinion that Feral DPS is TOO complex. But there has to be a middle ground somewhere that would make Ret feel more of a challenge without making one want to tear their hair out in frustration.

Re: JoJ - Judgement of Justice is not a gap-closer. It is there to MAINTAIN the gap once it has been "closed". And while it might be easier to kite a Rogue / Warrior compared to a Paladin, both of those classes have ways to get into (and out of) situations immediately. Sure the warrior is locked down and immobile for a few seconds, but the moment he is free he is Charging or Intercepting his way back into the fight. Likewise a Rogue can Sprint to get back in. And once EITHER of them are on a target, it's extremely hard to get them off. Hamstring can't be dispelled (except with HoF) and Rogues dump so many poisons out it's extremely difficult to keep a target clean. Meanwhile, JoJ can be easily dispelled pretty easily (not a ton of junk debuffs from a Paladin) and has a CD before it can be re-applied (unlike HS and Crip Poison).

All that said - I think the Paladin is in a good spot right now. I'm looking forward to the changes in 3.2 (for Holy especially). Here's hoping Blizzard keeps improving things in the future the way they have for the last year or so.

To say JoJ is a gap closer is to also say that anything that allows the attacker to move faster than the target is also a gap closer.

Hamstring for instance.

No, I don't agree that JoJ is a gap closer until we can use it when a gap exists.

Furthermore, I'm pretty disheartened with the Ret changes. A more lively rotation that actually put immersion into the game was promised, but by that I guess they meant "hit more buttons". There is nothing that changes it from a FCFS mashfest.

I saw something else worth mentioning unless I read it wrong. Supposedly Seal of Command is changing to a set amount of damage per swing. Does this mean Ret Pallys no longer need to look for the slowest weapon they can find?